Bravo, Kirby! I could not agree more. richard
Richard Del Belso > Date: Thu, 11 Jun 2009 09:36:48 -0500 > From: [email protected] > Subject: [MOPO] Slightly OT: HD DVD pan and scan > To: [email protected] > > This is by Glenn Erickson from the website DVD Savant: > > Hello! Well, Savant has run into something worth complaining about! I > DVR'd MGMHD's Hi-Def cablecast of Michael Powell's The Red Shoes a > couple of days ago and discovered something very disturbing. Ever > since about 1970 or so I've been a regular whiner about the practice > of Pan-Scanning widescreen movies for flat televisions, pointing out > ruined compositions, squeezed title sequences and the famous shots > where we see people's noses on each side of the frame while the Pan > Scan stays firmly planted on a table lamp at screen center. The > ability to see movies in their real aspect ratios is what pulled me > into the expensive hobby of laserdisc collecting; as I'm sure I've > said too many times, I bought a 16:9 television in 1995, two years > before enhanced DVDs came around, for the express purpose of cropping > full-frame transfers of movies that were supposed to be matted for > widescreen. Now, in 2009, widescreen TVs are finally the norm and the > transition is complete. > > Except with what I saw with the 1948 The Red Shoes, a flat 4x3 1:37 > aspect ratio feature film. MGMHD was showing it Tilt-Scanned to 1:78. > Somebody decided that Powell's classic looked nice at the wider ratio, > you know, to fill widescreen TV screens. MGM pillar-boxed The > Quatermass Xperiment full-frame, when it should be at least as wide as > 1:66, and now they've taken it upon themselves to chop up a widely > acknowledged classic. The Red Shoes is a ballet movie, and the first > thing that happens in many shots is that feet cross the line out of > the bottom of the frame. Masking off feet in a dance movie is a > serious problem, to say the least. When Powell and cameraman Jack > Cardiff get fancy with mattes, double exposures and strange angles, > the Tilt-Scanning makes it difficult to locate our intended focus. > This movie has just had a major restoration / repremiere, and doesnot > need to be "reformatted" to fit our TV screens". > > So for heaven's sake, someone sic Martin Scorsese, Thelma Schoonmaker > and the disc producers at Criterion on these people ... let's not let > Tilt-Scanning get a foothold on HD video! > > > > > > > > Kirby McDaniel > > www.movieart.net > > Visit the MoPo Mailing List Web Site at www.filmfan.com > ___________________________________________________________________ > How to UNSUBSCRIBE from the MoPo Mailing List > > Send a message addressed to: [email protected] > In the BODY of your message type: SIGNOFF MOPO-L > > The author of this message is solely responsible for its content. Visit the MoPo Mailing List Web Site at www.filmfan.com ___________________________________________________________________ How to UNSUBSCRIBE from the MoPo Mailing List Send a message addressed to: [email protected] In the BODY of your message type: SIGNOFF MOPO-L The author of this message is solely responsible for its content.
